Recently, various IP intelligent devices such as IP cameras, VOIP intercoms, IP door/gate controllers, IP access control systems, internet enabled servers, DVR's, NVR's, PC's for image and data storage with their individual programs have come on the market each with their specialized application program. For instance: IP cameras by SE Black, Sony, Panasonic and others, VOIP intercoms by CyberData, Viking Electronics, and others, IP door/gate Controllers by SmartDoor Systems, Inc., all offer an IP capability typical to IP devices such as remote, password protected log-in, system use file generation and data base management, event logging, various configuration capabilities, and remote diagnostic capabilities. The multiplicity of the devices, each with their own log-ins, passwords, security levels, setups, configurations, access to databases, fault reporting, notifications and report access security level clearance by type, operational access clearance, maintenance access clearance have combined to limit the effectiveness of multiple IP devices and overloaded data transmission capabilities has created obstacles to system integration because of its cost and complexity. Add to this the operational requirements of managing multiple portals in a single building; multiple buildings for a single customer, entity or institution, and handling the requirements of multiple customers, or institutions and the complexities multiply. Additionally, the spread of the IP portal control devices among various trades, developers, manufacturers and software writers, all hinder the development of a unified and integrated system that is easy for the end user to utilize. This complexity slows the system response time such that operational personnel are limited to assembling data accumulated after the fact from the separate systems in an event investigation and have little chance to intervene in the event as it happens to effect an alternate outcome.
Therefore there is a need for a single integration platform including apparatus and methods that overcomes the deficiencies inherent in the separate and various IP devices that can manage the log-in, security level, setup, report generation and access to data, event definition, event capture, alerting appropriate personnel with event notification, fault diagnosis, system maintenance, handle event definition, generation and management, define, categorize and sort event data, manage maintenance, alert operators to system faults, and makes a commercially viable multiple facility portal management capability possible with real time intervention in system faults and anomalies possible by operating personnel.